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Will & Grace: Season Seven (US - DVD R1)

Feature

Will & Grace enters its seventh season with more of the same old material that kept me from watching it for years. So, I sat down with two fans of the show to get a fan perspective on the happening. Apparently, Season five and six were the weaker seasons that featured Messing taking off for half a season due to pregnancy. They used her marriage to Leo to explain her long trips off the show and why the world seemed to move on without her. Karen had to deal with her husband suddenly dying on her and where that put her as a recent widow. Throw in Will and Jack as the support system and it's back to another year of female wish fulfilment.

Grace has just left Leo for good and she wants to return back to the life of being a successful interior designer. That's when the endless amount of guest stars begin to flood the remainder of the season, while Jack turns into a near 3-D stereotype. Again, I turned to the fans of the series that I reviewed this release with to get an idea of what was funny about the show. They told me to be quiet and keep taking notes. Apparently, they can relate to a limp-wristed man caterwauling about Dinah Shore and Coach bags.

NBC seemed to become so much better once they dumped the show and embraced the lovely line-up of My Name is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock and Scrubs. Humour is such a fickle thing and it's hard to try to discover what another group would lose their minds over. The show doesn't do a thing for me, but I would be worried if it did. Still, I can appreciate Alec Baldwin showing up out of nowhere and being the Ultimate Baldwin. That takes talent.

Video

Will & Grace looks like every other sitcom brought to DVD that wasn't shot in hgh-definition. The grayscale overpowers the image, as everything appears to be washed out. Given the characters overdone makeup, their skin appears washed when combined with that three-camera lighting style. It's not a pretty picture, as everyone either looks like a badly dressed mannequin or a corpse. Still, everything in the background looks normal. That is when you don't have the bits of digital noise appear in crowd scenes.

The transfer seems really under-lit, even in the stock footage of New York City used for bumpers. But, that's just one of the downsides of shooting a show on regular stock. This show ended right when the bigger NBC shows were making the shift towards HD based shoots and the different is astounding. If you're expecting pristine quality, you might be disappointed. This transfer is nothing more than average.

Audio

Will & Grace sounds exactly like every other sitcom from after 1992, but before 2006. Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround does what it sounds like to create the audio environment. Sounds effects and background noise gets pushed to the front side channels, while the centre channel takes on all dialogue. There's nothing that impressive about the mix, but it does what it needs to do to work. For any DVD release, that should be enough.

Extras

The extras on this set are on par with most TV on DVD sets. You get a look at the outtakes from this Season, as the cast and guest stars blow takes with giggles. The featurettes are nothing more but quick collection of quotes and brief moments of physical comedy pulled out of this season. You get the distinct impression that LionsGate is saving something big for the final season. But, I've been let down before by waiting for the studios to treat television shows properly.

Overall

Will & Grace season seven is a fun release for fans of the show. Those that are new to the festivities might find themselves a little out of place when you consider that the show came to an end with the following season. Still, the show's got a sizeable following and should be able to warm the hearts of those that purposefully set out to find it. You can knock what fandom supports and get away unscathed. That's while I'll leave with my appreciation for Megan Mullally duly noted.